The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods for acquiring co-registered X-ray and optical imagery. Medical image data, for example, is typically desired and/or obtained through various types of imaging modalities.
A co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/001,552, entitled “System and Method for Highlighting a Scene Under Vision Guidance”, which is subject to the same duty of assignment as the present application, discloses a system and method for processing coordinates of a target point in a captured image of a real scene, and converting the image coordinates into the coordinates of a light projector to illuminate the target point. In addition, issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,227,704; 6,229,873; 6,447,163 and 6,473,489; which are also subject to the same duty of assignment as the present application, disclose systems and methods for acquisition of video and X-ray images.
What is needed is a new system and method for real-time acquisition of co-registered optical (e.g., fluorescence, coherent, diffused or transmission) and X-ray images. Such a system could provide physicians with new imaging abilities for applications including, for example, Arthritis treatment monitoring. For such an application, an optical image could show the enzyme activities, while a co-registered X-ray image could allow a physician to exactly locate the activity in relation to bone structure. In this way, a physician could take advantage of both imaging systems at the same time, by viewing the superimposed images, and thereby be relieved from having to relate the two types of images in his/her mind. The desired system could allow the physician to visualize each of the optical or X-ray images alone or in combination with a co-registered image. The present disclosure addresses these and other related issues.